High school golf: 62 reasons Maggie Heggerston will be tough to beat this week

Maggie Heggerston knows she'll be carrying a target on her back when she begins play in the high school golf state tournament Tuesday.

The Pequot Lakes junior stepped into uncharted territory last week when she shot a staggering, state-record 10-under-par 62 to run away with the Class 2A-Section 7 title at Pokegema Golf Course in Grand Rapids.

The University of Minnesota commit finished the 36-hole, two-day event with a 15-under total of 129, 26 strokes ahead of the runner-up. She shot a 5-under 67 in the opening round.

Heggerston will be competing in the Class 2A tournament at the Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan. The Class 3A tournament is at Bunker Hills Golf Course in Coon Rapids, and the Class A tournament is at Pebble Creek Golf Club in Becker.

Heggerston welcomes any challenger, and takes comfort in knowing that she already has conquered her greatest opponent: herself.

"Whenever I would play bad ... " she explained. "This sport can really mentally torture you. I wanted to play so well, and nothing was going right. I'd feel like it was the end of the world for me at times."

The first time she contemplated leaving golf behind was when she was 14.

Competition had a way of warping the simple sport she learned beside her grandfather, who would take her out for ice cream after working on her golf game.

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Years later, she watched her scores stagnate in the 80s and 90s, and if those numbers refused to drop, she wondered hopelessly, why continue into high school?

"Golf is such a cruel game," said Chris Foley, her swing coach since the fifth grade and a certified PGA Master of Professional Instruction who operates his own school at Cragun's Legacy Course in Brainerd.

"Because Maggie has such high expectations, she tends to put a lot of pressure on herself, just like any player does," he added. "It's just part of the process you go through to get better; you question what you're doing."

Even after qualifying for the state tournament as a freshman and sophomore -- she tied for 17th in 2012 and was fifth in 2013 -- the game left Heggerston feeling hopeless again last August. She was drained and defeated from a summer competing in various elite junior tournaments.

"It got to be like I was driving her to her funeral by the end of the summer," said her mother, Leah. "I cried because I felt, you know, responsible in a way for bringing her to that stuff. She just wasn't enjoying it anymore."

When she returned home, Heggerston left her clubs in the garage and kept them there for months. But in the winter, what she calls "the itch" returned.

"One day, she just said, 'I wish I could swing,' " her mother said. "So it's obviously something in her."

That season, Heggerston took a four-day trip with a group from Foley's school to Arizona, where she participated in sessions by Vision54, a program that prides itself on training players with a holistic approach. She returned home with a renewed awareness of how to keep her mind clear on the course.

"You can't get worked up over one bad shot, or just one bad hole," she said. "There's just so many more."

Dale said he sees a changed player from the one he took notice of four years ago, a physically gifted talent in whom he saw limitless potential.

"Her maturity and her mental game is what's really, really come around," he said.

Heggerston never imagined shooting 62. She recalls that day starting like any other. She warmed up like she always had: 30 minutes with the irons, 15 with the putter.